Contents

Overview

The FN SCAR-20 is a Belgium-made automatic sniper rifle chambered with 20 rounds of 7.62x51mm NATO. It is a long range designated marksman rifle equipped with a high power lens scope, and is a variant of the SCAR-H battle rifle. Overall, the SCAR-20 has a high damage and rate of fire, as well as high accuracy, making it a weapon that is easy to use, but hard to master.

Despite these advantages, the SCAR-20 is rarely used in Competitive gameplay. Usually, the AWP is bought instead due to its higher damage per shot, better accuracy, and lower cost.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Very expensive

Heavy

Gameplay

Tactics

The SCAR-20 boasts high damage per shot and has low recoil. This allows users to spray bullets (even while using the scope).

However, when firing at or near the maximum rate of fire, this weapon becomes wildly inaccurate, especially at long range. Fire slower to land consecutive shots or go for a single headshot for maximum efficiency.

It also has very low accuracy while moving and combined with the weight and low rate of fire, submachine gun wielders can strafe and eliminate users with ease at close range.

Use this automatic sniper rifle for suppressive fire at longer ranges. This can allow your team members to bypass enemies lines.

Alternatively, you can support your team by taking foes at long range while they are occupied; watch for enemy snipers though.

If your target is not aware of you, go for a headshot instead of spraying bullets.

Due to the nature of the gun at holding down specific angles, it can be used to only send one counter-terrorist armed with the rifle to the bomb site, covering the primary entrance to the site and freeing up counter-terrorists to defend other sites or angles; primary examples involve B site on Inferno, or B site on Dust2

The SCAR-20 is relatively accurate when unscoped (unlike the AWP) but most automatic rifles and machine guns are more effective at closer ranges. Use it to hold choke points where the enemy has no choice but to attack head-on rather then attempting to aggressively push.

Despite the weapon having a high killing potential, its better to work with your teammate than running alone. If you do plan to stay and cover important areas, find a spot that is difficult for the opponent to ambush you. If such spot is unavailable, avoid using the scope for too long as it will reduce field of view.

Counter-Tactics

Exercise caution as the SCAR-20 has a similar performance to the G3SG/1. Grenades and/or the element of surprise should be used to your advantage. Have your teammates distract an enemy sniper if possible.

An AWP is a reliable counter-sniper weapon, provided you can at least score a hit on the torso of an enemy user. The SCAR-20 is unable to instantly kill a target (unless a headshot is scored or the target has low health).

However, if one shot of the AWP misses, a SCAR-20 user is likely to retaliate and quickly kill you before you can fire another shot.

If low on funds and you have to face a SCAR-20 user, the SSG 08 can be used, although this is very risky. Try to engage an enemy wielder when he is occupied or is not aware of you.

If possible, use a flashbang and rush to the position of a lone assailant with an SMG, a shotgun, or even a pistol.

A smoke grenade is best used to distract SCAR-20 wielders. They will have a hard time in seeing through the smoke and they may prefer to retreat. However, since most players will spray bullets into the cloud, including SCAR-20 users, a smoke grenade should be used for evasive maneuvers instead of rushing into the smoke recklessly.

Throw a HE grenade or a firebomb (such as the Molotov Cocktail) at the location of a SCAR user. The heavy weight will prevent him from moving quickly to avoid damage. Be aware though, some experienced or skilled users will switch to a sidearm or a knife to retreat quickly when an enemy HE grenade or Molotov cocktail is thrown. However, you can force them to switch to sidearm/knife this way, that they will be easier to kill with automatic weapons.

Trivia

All three involve "slapping" the side of the gun. This is actually slamming down the bolt catch (a small, paddle-shaped lever on the side of the receiver). Although meant to pressed with the thumb, some users prefer slapping it for convenience.

Some gun experts refer to this process as "sending the bolt home".

In the Alpha stages, the SCAR-20 had different animations that weren't based on the M4A4 animations.

The name "SCAR-20" is likely derived from the name of the actual weapon that it is based on, the SSR (Sniper Support Rifle) Mk 20 Mod 0, a variant of the FN SCAR. Its magazine size may also be a source for the "20" in the name.

In the older buy menus of Global Offensive, the purchase icon for the SCAR-20 featured the weapon without its scope.

Many people denigrate overly-eager usage of the SCAR-20 and its counterpart because of their automatic sniper rifle status.

The SCAR-20 does however see some high level professional deployment on maps such as Train and Nuke by players like 'Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP)' Team Captain, 'Get_Right'.

The SCAR-20 and its counterpart (the G3SG/1) are also known as the "DakDak" due to the infamous firing sounds they make.

Some servers ban/restrict the usage of both the SCAR-20 and the G3SG/1 due to their potential combat effectiveness against multiple enemies at long ranges. However, in custom servers with mods such as Zombie Escape, the SCAR-20 is quite common due to the aforementioned advantages.